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Liverpool Community Mental Health Grant Programme CLOSED

This programme is closed.

Liverpool Community Mental Health Programme: VCF Sector Grant Award Programme

Application Guidance (Including notes on Monitoring and Evaluation)

1. Overview

A consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a significant rise in reported poor mental health. A range of factors (many of which are inter-related) have combined to contribute towards experienced decline in mental wellbeing.

Having good mental health and wellbeing makes it easier to deal better with the different stresses (physical and mental) and problems in life. It also supports our ability to fulfil our ambitions and dreams, to be more confident, have good relationships with other people and cope with life’s ups and downs.

A Public Health England (PHE) review of the disparities between risks and outcomes has confirmed that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities and, in some cases, increased them. The following groups have been found to be most at risk of poor mental health:

  • Children and young people with particular characteristics
  • Young adults
  • Women, especially lone mothers
  • Women experiencing abuse/domestic violence
  • Adults living alone
  • Adults with pre-existing mental health conditions
  • Adults with caring responsibilities
  • Adults with low income
  • Adults who have experienced loss of income since the onset of the pandemic
  • Adults working in small businesses or self-employed
  • Front line health and social care professionals
  • Adults with long term physical health conditions
  • Older adults recommended to shield or with multi-morbidities • Children and men from certain minority ethnic backgrounds
  • Adults with COVID-19 symptoms.

Liverpool City Council Department of Public Health is piloting a Community Mental Health grant programme, working with the VCFS to support post-covid mental health. The aim of the pilot is to support organisations to work with individuals who may need low level support to enhance their wellbeing. Interventions offered will be preventative and aimed at reducing the likelihood of individuals having a deterioration in their mental health and requiring referral to formal NHS services.  This will be a pilot programme, the evaluation of which will feed into future integrated wellness strategy development.

LCVS will be administering the grant on behalf of LCC.

2. Level of funding available

Bids are invited for grants of between £15K and £30K for a 12-month programme of activity. It is expected that between 14-28 grants will be issued.

The grant can cover the project delivery as well as a contribution to core and running costs related to that project.

Project can be either extensions of existing projects or a new project but must have a clear exit or sustainability plan.

50% of the grant allocation will be provided once the offer letter is signed and returned by the grantee. A second 30% payment will be made further to receipt of satisfactory Quarter 2 monitoring data. A third and final payment will be made on receipt of a final outcomes report at the end of Quarter 4.

3. Who is eligible to apply?

This grant is aimed at the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Sector in Liverpool.

To be eligible your organisation must:

  • Have been established for at least 12 months as of September 2021
  • Demonstrate an income of between £10,000 and £750,000 as per your last accounts.
  • Be based in Liverpool, and operating for the benefit of Liverpool residents
  • Be able to meet one or more priorities as detailed
  • Have a constitution or governing document that contains clear charitable objectives
  • For Community Interest Companies, have at least three directors
  • Have a bank account in the name of the organisation with two or more signatories
  • Be able to provide annual accounts or an income and expenditure breakdown for the past 12 months
  • Provide an up- to- date safeguarding policy for the organisation.

The following are not eligible for funding via this programme:

  • Individuals, or organisations applying on behalf of individuals
  • Organisations established for less than 12 months as of September 2021
  • Organisations with an income of less than £10,000
  • Organisations with an income of more than £750,000
  • Statutory bodies
  • Organisations located outside  Liverpool
  • Companies limited by shares
  • Hospitals, health authorities
  • Medical research
  • Universities, colleges or schools
  • Academic research, scholarships or bursaries
  • Organisations set up to support animals
  • The promotion of religion or political views
  • Large capital costs including large scale renovations and the purchase of vehicles
  • The promotion of philanthropy and endowment appeals
  • Retrospective funding: costs that have already been incurred

4. Timetable

6th September: grants programme open for applications

10th September: funding workshop on application process, evaluation and monitoring

24th September:  application deadline w/c 18th October: successful applicants notified

Successful applicants will be required to submit evaluation reports quarterly on the 7th working day after the end of the quarter being reported on.  The final report is due 15 working days after end of the final grant quarter.

APPLICATION GUIDANCE:

Section A – Organisational details

This is where you can tell us about your organisation, including your main area of work. As with the rest of the form, please note the word count.

Section B – Programme details

In this section we need to know about your project, the number of beneficiaries you will work with, who your beneficiaries are and how your project meets the priority areas and outcomes.  The grants are available for projects that support the following priority areas:

  • Mental health promotion in youth outside of educational settings: this may be activity to engage vulnerable young people, or awareness raising or resilience-building programmes.
  • Addressing financial insecurity and debt: activity that supports people to better manage their finances or provides advice and guidance on managing finance.
  • Addressing loneliness to protect the mental health of vulnerable groups: See list of vulnerable groups on page 1. Activities could include people making befriending calls, group meetings, peer support groups etc.   
  • Bereavement support: This may be direct support to individuals e.g. counselling or it may be activities that assist bereaved individuals to re-engage with their community or society.

We are interested to see innovative approaches to meeting our identified priorities, particularly where projects are helping to support the whole family, either directly or indirectly.  

In addition to your project addressing the specific priority areas above, you must be able to demonstrate how your project meets 3 of LCC’s overarching health outcomes listed below:

  • Better management of mental health (this will be measured by e.g. ‘ x number of participants reported improved mental health’
  • Better management of physical health (as above)
  • Reduced loneliness
  • More secure accommodation and avoidance of eviction
  • Increased feeling of safety and reduced anxiety
  • Increased economic resilience
  • Greater choice of activities and increased opportunities for community participation

Safeguarding – We want everyone taking part to be able to fully participate in a way that is safe and secure. We will need you to include a copy of your safeguarding policy with your application as well as giving us a brief outline on how this policy is implemented. If you need help and support with safeguarding training and renewing volunteer / staff DBS certificates, then please tell us and we will get in touch.

Section C – Financial information

Please complete the budget section setting out the total cost of your programme.

You can only apply for funding to support the specific outcomes you are addressing in this application. If your project is an extension or enhancement of existing work you do, you must only apply for the cost of the additional work and outcomes that this funding would enable you to undertake.

Please note: Forms can only be submitted via the online link through the LCVS website.

Evaluation – Notes on what to expect

This is a pilot grant programme and evaluation is therefore an important element of the programme. We will need you to show how you will demonstrate you have met your project outcomes and detail what tools and methods you will use to gather that information.

Successful applicants will be expected to collect data on the progress of their beneficiaries during the period of the grant, so that we can assess the success of the pilot grant programme. Failure to provide monitoring and evaluation data may result in our having to reclaim an amount of any grant made.

We will be using Survey Monkey so that all evaluations are done online. This makes it easier to collate data and ensures a consistent approach.

Alongside general monitoring information, the specific data we will be collecting will include:

  • How many people have you worked with to date/by end of project?
  • Frequency of service user engagement
  • The total number of people for the reporting period who:
  1. Have been supported to address financial insecurity and debt
  2. Are specifically identified as vulnerable and have addressed isolation issues
  3. Have accessed bereavement support
  4. Are young people  who have increased their knowledge about mental health or have engaged in positive mental health activities
  • For any 3 or more of the below, the total number of unique individuals for the reporting period who have reported:
  1. Better management of mental health
  2. Better management of physical health
  3. Reduced isolation
  4. Have more secure accommodation/avoided eviction
  5. Increased feelings of safety and reduced anxiety
  6. Increased economic resilience
  7. Increased social connections/are more involved within the community
  • How you have spent your grant against the budget detailed in your application (please note, evidence of expenditure may be requested)
  • Please note that as the programme develops, we may have to ask for additional information, but we will try and keep you up to date.

This programme is closed.

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